Factors contributing to a school's decision to apply for the California Instructional School Garden Program.

Objective: To compare the applicant schools (AS) to non-applicant schools (NAS) residing in the same school districts for the California Instructional School Garden Program and identify barriers to the application process.

Methods: A case-control, cross-sectional study design was used to compare resources and school environments. Pearson chi-square and logistic regression were conducted.

Best practices models for implementing, sustaining, and using instructional school gardens in California.

To ascertain best practices for schools implementing or sustaining instructional school gardens by interviewing key members in 10 schools with exemplary instructional school gardens programs in California. Practices of schools with exemplary instructional school gardens programs were analyzed by constant comparative analysis using qualitative data analysis software. Seven of the 10 schools had people from at least 3 of the following 4 groups: administrators, teachers, parent and community volunteers and garden coordinators.

An evaluation of the California Instructional School Garden Program.

Objective: California Assembly Bill 1535 awarded $US 15 million to California public schools to promote, develop and sustain instructional school gardens through the California Instructional School Garden Program (CISGP). The present study was designed to assess the effectiveness of the CISGP at assisting schools in implementing, maintaining and sustaining an academic school garden programme, determine how schools utilized the funding they received and assess the impact of the California state budget crisis on the CISGP.

Design: A mid-term evaluation was used to assess the degree to which schools achieved their instructional garden-related goals.